Posted on 09/07/2006 4:12:34 PM PDT by Mo1
Senate Democratic leadership threatens Disney with legal and legislative sanctions
by John in DC - 9/07/2006 06:02:00 PM
Read it, then read my analysis of it below:September 7, 2006
The Senate Democratic leadership just threatened Disney's broadcast license. Not the use of the word "trustee" at the beginning of the letter and "trust" at the end. This is nothing less than an implicit threat that if Disney tries to meddle in the US elections on behalf of the Republicans, they will pay a very serious price when the Democrats get back in power, or even before.
Mr. Robert A. Iger
President and CEO
The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank CA 91521
Dear Mr. Iger,
We write with serious concerns about the planned upcoming broadcast of The Path to 9/11 mini-series on September 10 and 11. Countless reports from experts on 9/11 who have viewed the program indicate numerous and serious inaccuracies that will undoubtedly serve to misinform the American people about the tragic events surrounding the terrible attacks of that day. Furthermore, the manner in which this program has been developed, funded, and advertised suggests a partisan bent unbecoming of a major company like Disney and a major and well respected news organization like ABC. We therefore urge you to cancel this broadcast to cease Disney’s plans to use it as a teaching tool in schools across America through Scholastic. Presenting such deeply flawed and factually inaccurate misinformation to the American public and to children would be a gross miscarriage of your corporate and civic responsibility to the law, to your shareholders, and to the nation.
The Communications Act of 1934 provides your network with a free broadcast license predicated on the fundamental understanding of your principle obligation to act as a trustee of the public airwaves in serving the public interest. Nowhere is this public interest obligation more apparent than in the duty of broadcasters to serve the civic needs of a democracy by promoting an open and accurate discussion of political ideas and events.
Disney and ABC claim this program to be based on the 9/11 Commission Report and are using that assertion as part of the promotional campaign for it. The 9/11 Commission is the most respected American authority on the 9/11 attacks, and association with it carries a special responsibility. Indeed, the very events themselves on 9/11, so tragic as they were, demand extreme care by any who attempt to use those events as part of an entertainment or educational program. To quote Steve McPhereson, president of ABC Entertainment, “When you take on the responsibility of telling the story behind such an important event, it is absolutely critical that you get it right.”
Unfortunately, it appears Disney and ABC got it totally wrong.
Despite claims by your network’s representatives that The Path to 9/11 is based on the report of the 9/11 Commission, 9/11 Commissioners themselves, as well as other experts on the issues, disagree.
Richard Ben-Veniste, speaking for himself and fellow 9/11 Commissioners who recently viewed the program, said, “As we were watching, we were trying to think how they could have misinterpreted the 9/11 Commission’s findings the way that they had.” [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]
Richard Clarke, the former counter-terrorism czar, and a national security advisor to ABC has described the program as “deeply flawed” and said of the program’s depiction of a Clinton official hanging up on an intelligence agent, “It’s 180 degrees from what happened.” [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]
Reports suggest that an FBI agent who worked on 9/11 and served as a consultant to ABC on this program quit halfway through because, “he thought they were making things up.” [MSNBC, September 7, 2006]
Even Thomas Kean, who serves as a paid consultant to the miniseries, has admitted that scenes in the film are fictionalized. [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]
That Disney would seek to broadcast an admittedly and proven false recounting of the events of 9/11 raises serious questions about the motivations of its creators and those who approved the deeply flawed program. Finally, that Disney plans to air commercial-free a program that reportedly cost it $40 million to produce serves to add fuel to these concerns.
These concerns are made all the more pressing by the political leaning of and the public statements made by the writer/producer of this miniseries, Mr. Cyrus Nowrasteh, in promoting this miniseries across conservative blogs and talk shows.
Frankly, that ABC and Disney would consider airing a program that could be construed as right-wing political propaganda on such a grave and important event involving the security of our nation is a discredit both to the Disney brand and to the legacy of honesty built at ABC by honorable individuals from David Brinkley to Peter Jennings. Furthermore, that Disney would seek to use Scholastic to promote this misguided programming to American children as a substitute for factual information is a disgrace.
As 9/11 Commission member Jamie Gorelick said, “It is critically important to the safety of our nation that our citizens, and particularly our school children, understand what actually happened and why – so that we can proceed from a common understanding of what went wrong and act with unity to make our country safer.”
Should Disney allow this programming to proceed as planned, the factual record, millions of viewers, countless schoolchildren, and the reputation of Disney as a corporation worthy of the trust of the American people and the United States Congress will be deeply damaged. We urge you, after full consideration of the facts, to uphold your responsibilities as a respected member of American society and as a beneficiary of the free use of the public airwaves to cancel this factually inaccurate and deeply misguided program. We look forward to hearing back from you soon.
Sincerely,
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid
Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin
Senator Debbie Stabenow
Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Byron Dorgan
This raises the stakes incredibly for Disney.
Armitage's excuse for his 3 year silence when the Bush Administration was being hammered and Libby was being vilified was that Fitzgerald asked him NOT to reveal that he had been the 'leaker'. So WHY did Fitzgerald continue his 'search'? He's nothing but a fraud himself.
CHANGE THE DOCUMENTARY OR MEET ME AT FT. MARCY PARK TOMORROW AT NOON
LOL!
Only in America would a fat man in a suit who happened to belong to a party with little if no military affiliation think of making political threats.
Hmmm..token donations to Repbulicans..serious $ for Democrats.
We'll see...this guy is now stuck between a rock and..
What's hard to grasp is that he didn't SEE this film sooner..I mean..they had it vetted by lawyers and such..he had to have known it was going to stir up some..stuff.
Or is this yet another CEO sitting in the Office of Oblivion?
Hugh Hewitt has a copy also
New Target: Disney Chairman George Mitchell
Over 50,000 ThinkProgress readers have written ABC in the last 48 hours about “The Path to 9/11.” We’re going to keep the pressure on ABC, but we’re also broadening our focus today to the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC.
Disney’s Chairman of the Board is former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME). Senator Mitchell has a long and distinguished career both inside and outside government and he knows how important it is to accurately represent historical events.
We need to remind him that 9/11 was a national tragedy, and that politicizing and flagrantly misrepresenting the facts about 9/11 is wrong.
Senator George J. Mitchell
T: (212) 335-4600
T: (212) 335-4500
F: (212) 335-4605
george.mitchell@dlapiper.com
(Remember to be polite, and please copy us at tellabc@americanprogressaction.org so we can keep track your comments.)
ABC is feeling the pressure. Let’s keep it up.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/07/abc-mitchell/
we feel so safe mr. schumer
The producers could threaten ABC as they probably broke the contract and everything and turn it around and sell it to Rush and/or Fox.
Oh - I was condemned today because I spend so much time here.
^^^^
You are a valuable asset here! More reliable than cspan in sharing the words of the President, for example!
I dont know if this has been posted yet. Scholastic Pulls 9/11 Classroom Guide http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/newsanalysis/mediaentertainment/10307797.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
Lawyers only look at the facts for potential lawsuits ..
My guess is the facts panned out and matched ... that is why they didn't question it
The one signed by the Senators calls for possible military use....much more compelling.
Agreed Old Friend, and you are a good friend. but I ask you who or whom will do what?
This is arrogance gone wild in the rat party but they have to think that no one will step in to stop them or they would not have tried such a blatantly mobster style act.
Just called Lautenberg, if the old coot wakes up before 9/10 he will get my message. I told him the letter to disney was an abuse of power and was an abridgment of freedom of speech and press.
George Mitchell is a rat....he'll side with his fellow rats...
Someone needs to sends this to that Democrat chick with the shiney blouse who's been on Fox News twice today.
Well the legislative action is out. You can't mount that from the rumble seat.
And if ABC has the background material to prove what it is including in it's presentation, then they should insert more vile material against the Clintons and their minions, and air that on Sunday and Monday as well.
Some day I would like to think there was one public entity that would refuse to pucker when the Clinton's said jump.
That's right, little Timmy. Those mean old dems what to shoot poor little Mickey Mouse right in the head.
It is all fine to talk about blatant attempts to censor, by the dems.
And it is fine to expose the fact Clinton failed to take out bin Laden, 6, 7, 8, 9 ,10 years ago.
However politically this whole ABC issue could backfire.
The dems may say, fine---mistakes were made by Clinton, who did not kill/capture bin Laden.
But Bush has not done so, either and it has been 5 (FIVE) years. And obviously, the highest priority was reached 9/11/2001, under Bush.
And of course Pakistan is our ally, and so forth.
So I say don't get your hopes up that this is a brilliant political issue.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.